When
The Egg was completed in 1978, it was an architectural wonder. You could
see as much.

But it was not an acoustical wonder. Anyone who set foot inside its two
theaters could hear as much.

This isn't a revelation for the 24 years' worth of music fans who have
plunked down their ticket money only to find themselves sitting in a dead
spot or enduring a lopsided sound mix.

All of that changes this week, Egg managers promise. An all-new,
state-of-the-art theatrical sound system will make its debut tonight in
the Kitty Carlisle Hart Theatre, the larger of The Egg's two performance
spaces, during a concert by pop music star Bruce Hornsby. It will be given
a further workout -- and, officials hope, demonstrate its range -- on
Saturday, when singers from the Blue Hill Troupe join the Albany Symphony
Orchestra for a revue of Gilbert & Sullivan songs.

Among those in the audience for tonight's show will be Dick Stock,
Richard Dalbec, Peter Lesser and Richard J. Miller Jr., all of whom have
vested interests in hearing the expensive new gear on its maiden run.

"When The Egg was being planned," says Stock, project manager for the
state Office of General Services, which is responsible for the physical
aspects of the state-owned building, "it was originally going to be used
for lectures, not music and entertainment."

Despite the lack of top-notch in-house sound systems, the Hart and the
smaller Lewis A. Swyer Theatre were used for arts from the start,
beginning with a 1978-'92 residency by the New York State Theatre
Institute, then called the Empire State Institute for the Performing Arts.

It was Stock's job to make the Hart more fit for music. He hired the
consultants who designed the system as well as the technicians who
installed the new equipment and moved the best of the the Hart's castoffs
downstairs to the Swyer.

Analysis, revamp: Tonight's show will mark the end of a year-and-a-half
journey for Stock. To get the job done he had to learn more than he ever
cared to know about subjects like the "dirty power" that made even rented
equipment crackle and hiss, the "dry acoustics" that left the Hart
sounding flat and the "parametric equalization" that will finally help
liven up the space.

Stock worked from an acoustic analysis of the Hart by Jaffe, Holden,
Scarbrough Associates of Norwalk, Conn. Jaffe's evaluation, completed a
year prior to Stock's arrival, suggested one of two options: major
physical changes to the structure of the uniquely shaped theater or the
installation of an up-to-date sound system. The latter tack was taken, to
the tune of $800,000 from OGS coffers, according to Stock's estimate. (The
state owns the building; the facility is managed and events are presented
by a nonprofit corporation called The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State
Plaza Performing Arts Center Corp., which receives about one-third of its
annual funds from the state budget.)

Sage Engineering Associates of Albany, in association with Michael
Cusick, the internationally recognized audio systems designer of Clifton
Park's Specialized Audio-Visual Inc., mapped out the new Hart system;
Comalli Group of Albany rewired the theater; and Dalbec Audio Laboratory
of Troy installed the speakers, processors and mixing boards.

Dalbec and his four employees had a three-week period in August and
September in which to work in the Hart. It took hundreds of man-hours to
hand-wire the patch bays, truss the speakers and run all of the necessary
cables to connect the hardware together.

Earlier this month, he demonstrated the system by flipping a switch and
sending the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan pumping through the Hart. It
sounded clear, rich and powerful, without being overwhelming.

"Every seat in this house will get a specific response from the
speakers," Dalbec says. "It's a blessing. I think the room deserves it."

In all, 54 loudspeakers have been installed, including a full array of
new stage monitors and a battery of small speakers that can be used for
film presentations and orchestral performances.

Three clusters: At the heart of the system are three, 1,300-pound
clusters, each with five Meyer Sound Laboratories self-amplified speakers.
They are tuned to the room for optimum response. And all are hung above
the stage to offer better audiences sightlines than the floor-standing
speakers The Egg had to rent in the past for shows requiring
amplification.

Each individual unit can be tracked for temperature, performance and
equalization from a computer screen by the mixing desk at the rear of the
hall.

"These are amazing," says Dalbec. "They're all the rage."

All this tech talk means the average Egg patron will experience better
sound at individual shows, of course, but it means something about overall
programming as well.

The new sound system allows Lesser, now in his third season as
executive director, to bring in a wider array of artists and performance
groups.

In his previous post, as head of the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall,
Lesser was responsible for booking one of the most acoustically perfect
venues in the world.

He admits that coming to The Egg was "was basically a 180-degree
difference."

One of the attractions of The Egg, however, was that, with two theaters
and a more flexible stage in the Hart, it gave Lesser more options. And he
knew from the start that The Egg's sound deficiencies could be tackled.

"The advantage to a room like this," he said, "is that with electronics
you can do just about anything. So as a professional arts presenter it
allows me to offer a much wider spectrum of arts."

In the past, the solution to The Egg's acoustics amounted to renting
equipment to supplement the Hart's subpar sound reinforcement.

"We could not use the old system for any kind of live music concerts,"
Lesser said. "It was still OK for playback and for dance performances and
theater, but for anything with live instruments it really did not work."

A new situation: Lesser is clearly pleased that "the new situation"
gives him the opportunity to book orchestral events and light opera
programs, like this weekend's Gilbert & Sullivan, "with the potential
of it sounding the way it's meant to be."

He says, "We realize and accept that the Hart is never going to be a
naturally reverberant room, but this will get us as close as we can get in
this day and age. The goal will be for someone to sit in that room for a
symphony concert or an opera and not be thinking about the sound system at
all -- for it just to sound natural."

Lesser also notes that the Hart equipment that has been transferred to
the 450-seat Swyer will augment the existing sound reinforcement in the
smaller room, which is often used for intimate cabaret-style performances.

Richard J. Miller Jr. will be thinking about Gilbert & Sullivan
while he watches the Hornsby show. Miller is the chairman of the board of
directors at The Egg, but he also sings in the Blue Hill Troupe, a New
York City-based operetta society. He has high hopes for the new Hart
system.

"I think it's going to be very exciting," he says.

When Miller was appointed chairman by Gov. George Pataki in 1998, he
spearheaded a proposal between the governor's office and OGS to make
various capital improvements on The Egg, with a focus on fixing the
acoustics, especially in the Hart.

"The board made it clear at that point that we wanted to attract more
classical artists to perform in this great venue," Miller says. "We've now
fulfilled that objective."

Miller then goes further: "The improvements will make The Egg,
certainly, the pre-eminent performing arts venue of its size in the
region."